During the trial players were encouraged to engage in open
conversations with each other to discuss and analyse different tactics and approaches to the game as well as own understanding of the rules. The feedback indicated that the players enjoyed playing the game and that all of them seem to have understood the rules and mechanics when briefly
presented prior to gameplay. Overall, the players thought the game was well designed and had enough elements to actively keep one playing: “The
features of the game kept you thinking and guessing what to do next”. The participants that played both as a Zombie character and the PAC-LAN character believed the game was balanced between the two roles. One of the players mentioned that the ‘Screen Blanking’ was misleading and was easily confused with the screen lock capability of the device. However, when this feature was explained, the player understood its importance but suggested that instead of a plain black screen a better use of the space would be to
display their individual game avatar thus allowing the player to recognise the feature as part of the game.
When designing the map there was an emphasis on removing the clutter from the map to avoid player distractions. According to the discussions at the end of the trial, the map was perceived as a better alternative than a standard Google Map, with players mentioning that it was simple enough to
Three players pointed out that the characters and pills could be larger. Although the map was not designed for navigation, some players requested the ability to determine direction, either by using a navigational arrow or rotating the map. Audio feedback was also suggested as an enhancement to the current haptic feedback.
Study 2 - Background
The second study took place on the 5th of February 2015 with 8 different participants in order to investigate the creation of a map to promote ‘head-up’ navigation in LBGs. This assessment comprised the comparison of the ‘Pac- Map’ against three other maps that were created using slight variations upon each of the same set of design goals: the ‘RPG Map’ (Figure 24), the ‘Sketchy Map’ (Figure 25), and the ‘Anti-Glare Map’ (Figure 26), all of which were rendered using the same software and the same OpenStreetMap database, presented in the following paragraphs. All 8 players were asked to play a short custom-built LBG that required them to navigate between 20 physical objects (the PAC-LAN game pills) with 5 objects per map type. The initial map was chosen at random and then changed for another randomly selected map after every fifth anchor was correctly tagged. This method was chosen in order to allow the assessment of each map. The LBG tracked the players’ progress using GPS and required them to hold down the volume rocker in order to view the map (similar to the ‘Screen Blanking’ design element in the main game). This slight variation came as a design decision within the team, based on the comments and feedback received from the first study.
Furthermore, in order to avoid the confusion reported during the first study, the screen displayed the message “Press and hold the volume rocker to see the map”. This mechanic also means that players’ interactions with the map are both logged alongside GPS-derived location for later analysis. Following play, all eight players were also given a semi-structured questionnaire and
interview about how each map influenced their level of interaction with the screen and their surroundings. To better understand how each map is different and the reasons behind these differences, they are all presented in the following parts of this chapter.
The RPG Map
The RPG Map (Figure 24) is inspired by the ‘classic’ Role Playing Games (RPG’s) of the 1980’s and 1990’s. The data has been abstracted into a grid of 20m cells, each of which can only contain one of five feature classes:
‘building’, ‘road’, ‘water’, ‘trees’ or ‘hazard’. Cells were then dissolved into contiguous areas of each data type and coloured using tiled textures collected from freely available online sources. The use of a coarse 20m grid gives this map a greater level of abstract feature representation than the Pac-Map, therefore making it more difficult to rely upon for navigation, in order to investigate the effect that this has upon the players’ interactions during gameplay. The coarse grid, RPG-style textures and playful features (e.g. the use of a ‘lava’ texture to denote hazards) lend a definite ‘game aesthetic’ to the map, but in less-specific manner to the Pac-Map. In this way, this map allows a comparison of the effect of different levels of spatial ambiguity in the maps.
Figure 24. The RPG Map.
The Sketchy Map
The Sketchy Map (Figure 25) is rendered using a combination of polygon smoothing, line simplification and image compositing techniques in order to give a ‘hand-drawn’ appearance to map features. ‘Sketchiness’ as a device for enhancing the aesthetic or narrative qualities of cartographic outputs has been explored previously by Wood et al. (2012) and has also been employed by Griffen et al. (2014) as a visual variable in maps. In this case, however,
‘sketchiness’ is used as an alternate approach to abstract feature
representation, acting to obscure the precise position and shape of geographic features. The ‘hand-drawn’ or ‘sketchy’ effect on the polygons has been
achieved by a combination of polygon smoothing, line smoothing, multiple- overlay and image composite operations in order to give the impression that they have been drawn using felt-tip pens, akin to the approach first suggested by Ashton (2012). Conversely, the line features were simplified using the Visvalingam-Whyatt line generalisation algorithm (Visvalingam and Whyatt, 1993), and overlaid using transparency and image composite operations in order to give the appearance of having been drawn using highlighter pens. This approach will allow the comparison of abstract feature representation arising from ‘sketchiness’ against the grid-based approaches used in the Pac- Map and the RPG-Map as a device for the encouragement of ‘head-up’ gameplay. The main difference with this approach is that the level of
abstraction varies from feature to feature as opposed to being uniform across the dataset as is the case in the grid-based approaches, which may prove more disorientating for users. The ‘hand-drawn’ aesthetic promotes a ‘playful’ feel to the map, but without specifically evoking a ‘game’, permitting further investigation into the effect of the map aesthetic upon game immersion.
The Anti-Glare Map
The Anti-Glare Map (Figure 26) is intended primarily to perform well outdoors and investigate the alternate hypothesis that a clear and precise map may be more successful than an abstract map in encouraging ‘head-up’ play as players will be able to digest spatial information more quickly. As such, the Anti-Glare Map does not exhibit any level of abstract feature representation, and so acts as a ‘control’ in this investigation regarding the effectiveness of this technique. In doing so, this map minimises the interaction time through being clear and easily readable, thus requiring less interaction than other maps due to ease of use, rather than spatial ambiguity. The Anti-Glare Map utilises a triadic colour scheme in order to gain a high degree of contrast between features whilst maintaining colour harmony. Features are divided into five classes: ‘building’, ‘road’, ‘footpath’, ‘trees’ and ‘hazard’, and a light- grey background was chosen because lighter background colours are typically less susceptible to screen glare. Hazards are filled with black, accenting them in comparison to the background and other features, whereas all the other features (those using the triadic colour scheme) include an accent using a darker shade of the same colour. This accent is used to outline all of the features except footpaths in order to make them ‘pop’ out from the light background, and is used as a dashed centreline for the footpaths, in order to create a contrast between the footpaths and the roads.
Study 2 - Findings
The quantitative data collected in the log files confirms that, as expected, players spent the least amount of time looking at the (least abstract) Anti- Glare Map (c. 31% of the time), and the most amount of time spent looking at the (most abstract) RPG Map (c. 47% of the time). Of the remaining two maps, more time was spent looking at the Sketchy Map (c. 44% of the time), with its variations in level of abstraction from feature to feature, in comparison with the uniformly abstract Pac-Map (c. 38% of the time). Whilst these findings are interesting (albeit expected), the amount of time spent looking at the map is unlikely to be inversely correlated to the level of engagement with the landscape. As such, it is the qualitative data relating to the players’
perceptions of the impact that the maps had upon their engagement with their surroundings that is therefore of more interest in this chapter.
Through a simple vote within the questionnaire, players identified the Pac-Map and Sketchy Map as being equally the “most suitable map for use in an LBG”, whereas the RPG-Map was considered to be the best for generating engagement with the environment. The reasons for the latter, however, were very clear in the associated comments, with the RPG Map being unanimously considered to be “very difficult”, and “frustrating” to use, with one player even suggesting that it was “totally unusable”. This, along with a complaint that the map suffered from screen glare, is a clear suggestion that the RPG- Map is ‘too abstract’, and therefore not well suited to an LBG. These
comments were interestingly contrasted with those relating to the Anti-Glare Map, which was described as “too easy” by two users and caused one user to feel they “spent too much time looking at the map because it was easy [to navigate with]”. These preliminary findings lend support to the hypothesis that a map exhibiting abstract feature representation can lead users to engage more with their surroundings, and that too great a level of abstraction can become counter-productive in this regard. Of the remaining maps, the Pac- Map seemed to be considered as more well balanced: “I could tell what things were represented but still looked up”; and as an attractive or well-suited map design: “Nice feel”, “It’s like the original Pac-Man”. Similarly, the Sketchy Map was considered as “pleasing on the eye” and “more fun”, as well as “showed just enough to navigate but required you to look around” and “challenging enough to keep it interesting”. These comments suggest that
both were well received by users and fulfilled their desired purpose well, again lending support to the above hypothesis. When the quantitative findings are also considered, however, the Pac-Map appears to have
performed best across the three principal design goals: to promote immersion into the game through the use of a suitable aesthetic; to perform well within the context of a mixed-reality LBG (i.e. outdoors); and to encourage players to navigate ‘head-up’ rather than ‘head-down’ when playing an LBG.
A Discussion of Immersion
One of the most common components of a mixed-reality location-based game is a digital map that allows the players to visualise the game space and, in many cases, the location of the virtual game elements within the physical space. As such, the map element often encourages players to constantly check their current location on a mobile screen in order to navigate the physical space resulting in their attention being divided between the digital
representation of the space and the physical space itself. This repeated switch in attention has the potential to interfere with the immersion of the player in the physical context of the game as the virtual component dominates and so the quality of the locative experience may be reduced. Carrigy et al. (2010) stated that immersion is used to describe a state where the player has lost connection with the world outside of the game and results in “the boundaries of the magic circle”, in which the game is played, becoming the current ‘real world’ of the player. In the case of computer games, one of the metrics often used to identify this phenomenon is presence, better defined as “the subjective experience of being in one environment (there) when physically in another environment (here)” (Witmer and Singer, 1998). In such games, the “players are actively, rather than passively, engaged in the gameplay experience and therefore the quality of the players’ interaction with the game system, through the game mechanics, is a key factor influencing immersion” (Carrigy et al., 2010). Immersion can also be described as the degree of involvement of a player with a particular game and can be considered in relation to three
distinct levels: ‘engagement’, ‘engrossment’ and ‘total immersion’ (Brown and Cairns, 2004). The engagement level refers to the player overcoming the
barriers of basic rules and understanding of the game, whereas the
through play. Finally, the player only enters total immersion when they become completely absorbed within the game space and no longer engaged with operational aspects of the game. A good example of this is virtual reality (VR) where, due to some of the player’s senses being highly engaged (vision), the player often loses touch with the outside environment. Mixed-reality LBGs are enacted simultaneously in both the digital as well as the physical space, thus presenting a challenge for achieving immersion as the player’s attention is inherently divided between both the digital and the physical. Immersion should therefore be considered in both worlds: with ‘physical immersion’ referring to that when players are immersed in the physical world; and
‘digital immersion’ referring to that when players are immersed in the virtual world, which in most cases is presented through the screen of the mobile device. Rather than immersion types being viewed as two distinct states, they should be viewed as the ends of an immersion continuum. At any one time, a player in an LBG may be considered to be somewhere along this continuum but being attracted by each pole (the digital and the physical) simultaneously, thus preventing total immersion at either extreme. This fluctuation in the player’s attention between the physical and the digital is what I refer to herein as the ‘Dichotomy of Immersion’ in LBGs.
The majority of previous designs of LBGs only address ‘digital
immersion’ through the use of sound, such as Riot 1831! (Reid et al., 2005), Savannah (Benford et al., 2004), Viking Ghost Hunt, REXplorer, Visby Under, Frequency 1550 (Carrigy et al., 2010), undermining the importance of the physical space that LBGs are played in. However, the requirement to navigate through physical space will prevent total digital immersion, and hence it is equally important to address physical immersion. In doing so, players are encouraged to become more aware of their physical surroundings, and less reliant upon the on-screen digital artefacts. Therefore, in this chapter I
suggested techniques such as the introduction of additional elements into the physical space in order to facilitate in-game navigation, and an interaction design in which the map acts as a reference to physical elements within the game arena as opposed to a direct navigation device. The introduction of these elements may be considered as facilitating what Lynch (1960) referred to as the “legibility of the space”. Lynch argues that when navigating familiar surroundings, people use their own mental mappings of physical spaces to
orient themselves and that each individual has their own distinct image of how a particular place appears. This image is built upon their past experiences and current perception of that space, and it is this newly formed image that is “used to interpret information and guide to action” (ibid). Enabling clear mental mappings of the environment counters the effect of disorientation provided through the unfamiliarity of a new space that can often introduce fear. According to Lynch (ibid), each image is constructed using three major components: ‘identity’ (recognition of physical elements), ‘structure’
(relationship of physical elements to other physical elements) and ‘meaning’ (practical interpretation to each observer). Therefore, in order for a new space to be easily navigable, it has to have clearly defined physical elements that are easily recognised by people. These elements, in connection to other physical elements, can form a story and lay the foundation for the story to be
remembered by individuals navigating the space.
If we consider this notion of spatial legibility in terms of video games that operate on a spatial level, such as Pac-Man (1980), the game area is clearly defined as a maze identified by solid lines representing the walls. As such, the player knows exactly what the limitations of the playable area are and there is no movement beyond these hard boundaries. The on-screen representations of the game elements therefore make this space legible in such a way that players can readily deploy different tactics for winning the game. LBGs are inherently open-world games, and even where there are natural boundaries and
inaccessible areas (e.g. buildings, lakes, fences etc.) there are generally no physical elements that help identify the bounds and nature of the playable area. This is because LBGs are played in the physical spaces that are already legible and have features that often already facilitate the traversal of such spaces (e.g. defined footpaths). As such, any game elements that are added must not be counter-intuitive to existing perceptions of the traversal of the space. These elements should therefore be unique in their appearance and stand out from all other physical features within the space. However, the positioning of physical elements to act as bridges between the real world and the game world is often deemed impractical or limited in terms of scalability, and as such the vast majority of LBGs are only identified digitally on the mobile phone screen.
Therefore, in order to achieve greater immersion in LBGs, the attention of the player must also be allowed to focus on the physical space as well as the digital space, which will require new design strategies. As there are no such strategies readily available, the presented project focused on this challenge, through the design of a particular game. Gaver states that the exploration and experimentation of a particular design can lead to a better understanding of the underlying design processes involved to provide insights that can be utilised more generally (Gaver, 2012). Therefore PAC-LAN: Zombie
Apocalypse explored space legibility as a means to achieve greater physical immersion in LBGs. This game builds upon an earlier location-based game, PAC-LAN (Rashid et at., 2006a) that unconsciously addressed this issue.